I have no idea at all if the Dutch in Michigan celebrated Pinkster 100 or more years ago. Pinkster (Pinksteren is Dutch for Pentecost) is a holiday connected with Pentecost and loosely related to May Day and spring festivals. It typically occurs in May or June. Here is a photo from the very limited Wikipedia article about Pinkster.
Notice how the children hold ribbons around a pole, much like what we tend to think of as a traditional Maypole.
The reason I started thinking about this is because I found this very damaged photo which I believe belonged to Alice Leeuwenhoek, born 1897 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her family, like all my grandfather’s family at that time, belonged to the Reformed church where all the Sunday School children were likely to be Dutch.
If you look carefully at this photo, you will see these children are all holding what looks to be a ribbon of some kind. At first I thought maybe a paper chain, but I don’t think it is. Also, notice the flowers. The children are dressed in their Sunday best and so is the woman standing behind them. This would not be a regular school day, then, but Sunday School or a holiday. I do see the American flag near the woman’s right shoulder which does seem to indicate a schoolroom. Would public school have celebrated a religious holiday if the student body was fairly homogeneous? Click on the photo to enlarge.
Look carefully at the girl third from our left. What is in front of her? Is that a doll on the ribbon? Or, is it what my daughter suspects, a ghost?
If you read more about Pinkster you will see that Africans in the United States took over the holiday and made it their own–and why. It has to do with being enslaved and that it was a holiday where they got “time off” work and could see family and friends.
Do you have other ideas about the photo or see something that I missed? I’d love to hear!
My mother gave me a fascinating book, published in 1947, called Americans from Holland by Arnold Mulder. Mulder’s perspective is of a writer who has just witnessed the world going through WWII, and while this book reads as a definitive history secondary source, it is shaped by the time period in which it was written. That said, it’s the best account I’ve seen of the history of the Dutch in the United States and what led up to the waves of immigration.
Five years ago I wrote about one of my ancestors who applied to the city of Goes to emigrate. You can find the story of tailor Adriaan Zuijdweg’s (1805-1851) declined petition in this post: My Dutch Family Almost Arrived in the U.S. Decades Earlier. At the time, the only information I had was what Elly Mulder had given me, telling me about the “separated” Reformed Church and how Adriaan probably was probably part of the separatists.
The chapter, “Souls or Bodies,” sheds more light on the situation for Adriaan and his family, as well as other members of his congregation.
Mulder investigates whether it was religious differences or economic troubles that drove the Dutch to begin to immigrate to the United States in the 19th century. He describes how the Reformed Church had been negatively transformed by the government after Napoleon. According to the Napoleonic Code, they were not allowed to gather in groups of more than twenty. Dissenters appeared who wanted to bring the church back to what it had been. The government cracked down on them, levying fines on the religious leaders and others who allowed church services in their homes or businesses. The leaders were arrested. The more the government went after them, the more dissenters appeared.
Two of the main leaders were the Reverend Hendrik Pieter Scholte and the Reverend Albertus Christiaan Van Raalte. Scholte immigrated to Iowa with his congregation.
Scholte founded the town of Pella, Iowa, in 1847. His house was one of the first buildings constructed there. That house is now on the National Register of Historic Places, and you can see from the photo that house was enlarged at some point.
from Wikipedia
Van Raalte’s group went to Michigan (and perhaps Wisconsin) in 1846, one year after Adriaan ‘s request to leave the Netherlands.
Note: The town of Zeeland was founded by Jannes van de Luijster (Luyster) and other immigrants in 1847. What I have not yet discovered is where the lives and influence of Van Raalte and Van de Luijster intersected.
Arnold Mulder argues that the immigrants were not individuals immigrating to the United States, but rather communities–specifically, church communities.
If you think about it this way, it would have been a real hardship for Adriaan not to be allowed to emigrate from the Netherlands with his community. What I do not understand is why some would have been allowed and others not, but it might have had to do with the city itself. Adriaan was from Goes, and it was the government of Goes that denied him his request. Van Raalte was from a town in Overijssel, far from Zeeland. So while Adriaan’s church community may have been part of the separated/seceded Reformed church, it was not Van Raalte’s own congregation. Jannes van de Luijster was born in Hooftplatt, Zeeland, about 30 miles from Goes, so it’s more likely that Adriaan was following his lead. It would be fascinating to know how many requests during that period were approved by Goes. Clearly, because of the timing of Adriaan’s request, he intended to be in an early group moving to the United States. [Important note: at first the Van Raalte group were in New York, and then after Van Raalte saw the value of Michigan land for farming, moved to west Michigan.]
Mulder conjectures that it wasn’t only the religious differences that caused the Dutch to leave during this time. He believed that the Dutch would have stayed and fought their battles at home if that were the only reason. You see, they really didn’t want to leave the Netherlands. But Napoleon had stripped the Netherlands of much of her wealth, and the Dutch were struggling economically. With a population of two million, 700,000 Dutch people were on the dole in one way or another! With hunger, disease had also increased.
At the end of the chapter, Mulder makes one more assertion, that the Dutch were welcomed in the United States because although they came for partially economic reasons, in contrast to immigrants from Ireland and Germany, the Dutch looked reasonably well off. In part, this was because some of the immigrants did bring some wealth with them (and helped out their congregation members, as well). Another reason, Mulder speculates, was because the Dutch valued appearances and cleanliness and maybe would have gone without necessities in order to look presentable. Whether this is ethnic pride on Mulder’s part or has a basis in truth, I don’t know. What I have read of German and Irish immigration during this same time period makes me think the Germans and Irish were perhaps more desperate.
Today I am sharing the last of my 4x great-grandparents. Luckily, I had posts and research prepared before I got this Valley Fever pneumonia, but I won’t be able to work on 5x or greater until I get rid of this brain fog. But because of the records I already have, I believe I have the names of most, if not all, of my 5x, as well as many of my 6-8x greats. I can only hope that a lot of their records are online.
This couple is Willem Hijman and Pieternella Filius. By the way, I think I have the names of my 9x greats through Willem.
Ancestry life stories:
When Willem Hijman was born on March 19, 1812, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, his father, Gerrit, was 33 and his mother, Hendrika, was 22. He married Pieternella Filius on May 5, 1836, in his hometown. They had six children in 19 years. He died on January 19, 1875, in Kloetinge, Zeeland, Netherlands, at the age of 62.
When Pieternella Filius was born on January 30, 1813, in Kloetinge, Zeeland, Netherlands, her father, Pieter, was 33, and her mother, Cornelia, was 29. She married Willem Hijman on May 5, 1836, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands. They had six children in 19 years. She died on February 14, 1889, in her hometown, having lived a long life of 76 years.
The information about Willem and Pieternella is accurate as I have their baptismal, marriage, and death records. But what the life stories don’t mention is that of the six children, only four survived into adulthood. One child was stillborn (levenloos) and not even given a name. In fact, the stillborn record takes the place of birth and death records. Another, the first Gerrit, died an infant in 1844. Kornelia, Pieternella, Gerrit, and Willem survied. Kornelia, the eldest, was my 3x great-grandmother.
Here is the levenloos document, entry #3:
Both Willem and Pieternella are listed in records as arbeider and arbeidster respectively. These terms mean worker, but I don’t know what kind of work they did. They are another couple who were born and died in Goes. Goes is the city where my grandparents’ ancestors intertwined.
My parents actually visited Goes, and while my father was very good about recording all his travel with his camera (and even sending me CDs with the photos), for some reason I never got any photos of Goes from their trip.
All the images of Goes that I have seen, including the one below, make it look very picturesque. It’s hard to understand why someone would want to leave such a beautiful place, but lovely scenery is obviously not all there is to having the best life one can achieve. It is nice to know, though, that all the generations that did live in (and stay in) Goes could look out upon the beauty of the area.
Today I move on to Grandma’s 3rd set of Dutch great-greats. My 4x great-grandfather Willem Gorsse was born on January 25, 1802, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands to 19-year-old parents. At the age of 23, he married Catharina Opperman. They had eight children together. The four girls all survived into adulthood, but the four boys all died in infancy. With the birth of the eighth child, a boy named Kornelis, Catharina herself passed away in 1839. She wasn’t my ancestor, but my sympathies are all with her. She was only 38 years old.
Eleven months later, on 30 January 1840, Willem married my 4x great-grandmother, Neeltje Reijerse in Goes.
Neeltje was not a young girl. She was 34 years old (born 1805) and had given birth to at least two children. At the age of 19, when she was working as a maid, she gave birth to a son, Geerhard. No father was listed. That makes it appear that this was an illegitimate birth. Then nine years later, Neeltje gave birth to a daughter, Adriana. No father was listed for Adriana either. Both children had been given Neeltje’s surname at birth.
Here is Geerhard’s birth record:
Someone in a genealogy translation Facebook group kindly translated the record for me:
On the 31st of March, in the year 1824 at 11AM, in front of Gerard de Leeuw, servant of the civil register of the city of Goes, district of Goes, province of Zeeland: Maria Drentz, 40 year old midwife living here, showed us a male child born on the 30th of March 1824 in Goes at 4 in the morning in house #312 to Neeltje Reijerse, 19 year old worker, living in this city district, and declares that the child has been given the name Geerhard. Verifying this declaration is witness Johan Gerard van Maldegem, 43 year old cow-milker living in house 3w, and Willem Legs, 32(?) year old labourer living in house 312. [Note from me: I suspect that address 3w was actually 310. Take a look at the record yourself and see if you agree with me.]
This is the first time I have run across this issue of fatherless children in all my research on my Dutch ancestors. Sometimes the first baby was not a “nine month” birth. But years ago my grandmother told me that it was common in the Netherlands that after the banns were read (this indicated that the couple were to be married), a little fooling around was not frowned upon. This was meant to be a fertility check, according to Grandma. So what happened when the girl didn’t get pregnant?! I’d like more detailed information about this practice. Nevertheless, that isn’t what happened in Neeltje’s case. The father or fathers of her children remain anonymous, and I can find no record of a marriage for Neeltje before the one to Willem.
I wish I knew what made Willem and Neeltje decide to marry. Did Neeltje want a husband or a father for her daughter Adriana (Geerhard died as an infant)? Did Willem think a little older woman who had a living daughter might be able to give him more children? Or did she seem a good mother for his four daughters? We will never know the personal history of these two and how they knew each other and what led to their marriage.
Willem and Neeltje did end up having four children together. Geertruid and Marinus both died as infants. But Jan and Gerard lived longish lives. Jan, my 3x great, died in 1911 at age 70, and Gerard lived until 1920 at age 74.
Willem died on 29 November 1867, in his hometown at the age of 65. Neeltje passed away on 11 November 1869 also in Goes. Three of her six children survived, and six of Willem’s twelve children survived.
I have all the basic records for this couple except for Willem’s birth or baptismal record–as well as any military record that might exist for him. But I have both his marriages, his death, and Neeltje’s baptism, marriage, and death records. Willem’s occupation was bezemmaker. I believe, but am not certain, that this means broom maker.
The more I read about the infant mortality experiences of my ancestors and the deaths of young women from childbirth the more I wonder about the emotional landscape of these people. Although the experiences of both Catharina and Neeltje were different, their lives were completely defined by their childbearing. How did it feel to have and raise a daughter knowing that she might very well be dead a few years after she married? That she might spend most of her adult life pregnant or nursing? That the likelihood of a stepmother raising your grandchildren was so great? How did girls feel growing up seeing how dangerous childbirth was for women? Did it change how girls were raised and treated?
I keep thinking about the lullabye “Rockabye baby.” Although Wikipedia lists many possible origins, one that is not mentioned is the one I learned in researching for an academic text chapter I wrote years ago: the rhyme was meant to make the “evil eye” think the mother didn’t love her baby so that the baby wouldn’t be taken away (die). Did the children feel less loved because of these fears?
Rock-a-bye baby
On the treetop
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock
When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall
And down will come baby
Cradle and all
History was one of my college majors, so I like to think I know a little bit about the subject. But the more genealogy I study the more I realize history was like a movie to me before. Now I really wonder about the interior lives of the people.
My 4x greats, Izaak Boes and Adriana van de Walle, are the second of four Dutch couples that my grandmother, L. Edna Mulder Zuidweg, was descended from.
Ancestry’s bio for Izaak reads this way:
Izaak Boes was born in 1805 in IJzendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands, the son of Maria and Jannis. He married Adriana Vandewalle and they had 10 children together. He then married Cornelia van de Merrelaar and they had two children together. He died on March 13, 1891, in his hometown, having lived a long life of 86 years.
Keep in mind that as I get new information this will change.
Adriana Vandewalle was born in 1809 in Groede, Zeeland, Netherlands, the daughter of Maria and Januarius. She married Izaak Boes on March 24, 1830, in IJzendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands. They had 10 children in 12 years. She died as a young mother on December 15, 1842, in IJzendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands, at the age of 33.
Poor Adriana. She died at 33, whereas Izaak lived to be double that plus twenty!!! Adriana passed away 8 days after her son Izaak Jacobus Boes was born. Without his mother’s care perhaps, Izaak died in April of the following year.
I am going by their marriage record that Izaak was born in Ijzendijke and Adriana born in Groede. I do not have a birth or baptismal record for either.
This is the marriage record for the couple:
Here is the index:
Adriana’s death record:
And the index:
Here is Izaak’s second marriage to Cornelia van de Merrelaar:
Here is the index:
Izaak died:
Here is the index for his death record:
Cornelia passed away 8 days after Izaak.
Index:
Although Izaak and Cornelia were elderly and both without occupations when they passed away, at the time of Izaak’s first marriage, he was listed as a tailor*. Adriana was listed as a maid, but I am guessing that was just until she married. The same was true of both Izaak and Cornelia when he remarried.
*The translator had given me “dressmaker” instead of tailor, but I was corrected by readers that it meant that Izaak was a tailor.
This post was originally briefly published a while back. At the time I was ill and had forgotten that I had set this post to publish at that time. Because I wanted to be able to respond to comments, I took it down and didn’t re-post until today. I have a real “gift” from the Arizona desert, Valley Fever. It’s a fungal infection of the lungs that can spread to other parts of the body. I have been doing a lot of sleeping! But this post is a pretty exciting one for me, so I didn’t want to delay too much.
The 2x great-grandparents of my grandmother, L. Edna Mulder Zuidweg, were my 4x greats, Karel Mulder and Rose Melanie Bataille. Grandma always said we had some French heritage. Obviously she was well-trained in her own ancestry because she was right. The French connection came from Rose Melanie and her family.
Karel Mulder was born on 3 December 1812 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands. (20) Karel, a shoemaker, married Rose Melanie Bataille on 5 May 1836 in Goes. (22)
What an exciting discovery I made when I searched wiewaswie for that marriage record.
As I pulled up the record itself (the record was free and immediately available), I saw a very familiar name: ADRIAAN ZUIDWEG! Yes, that’s my grandfather’s name. And his father’s name. And HIS grandfather’s name. And this was indeed my great-grandfather’s grandfather. I’ve already written about this Adriaan, the tailor, and his wife, Johanna Mulder. Johanna is our current (the one I’m writing about today) Karel’s brother.
Was this a double wedding? Yes! It was. Both brother and sister married their betrothed at the same ceremony. You can see on the documents that all four parents signed each record, and that many of the witnesses are the same.
What makes this even more exciting is that Karel and Rose Melanie were my grandmother’s ancestors and that Adriaan and Johanna were my grandfather’s ancestors!!!!
Rose Melanie was born about 1810 in Etaples France. (21). At the time of her marriage she was a servant in Goes. (21) I don’t know how she ended up in Goes, but her family had immigrated or moved to the Netherlands from France. The reason I mention it could have been considered a “move” is that at that time the Netherlands was part of the French empire. It looks like Rose Melanie’s sister got married in Goes a couple of years before RM did. She married Jan de Munck.
At the time of his death in Goes at age 57, on 3 January 1870, Karel owned 3/8 of a house and yard in the “Papegaaistraatje [Parrot Street]” district. Rose died on 10 July 1887 at the age of 77 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.23 Karel and Rose Melanie had become quite prosperous from shoemaking and then perhaps retail. When Rose Melanie passed away, she probably left my 2x great-grandfather Pieter Mulder, an orphan, an inheritance that enabled him to bring his young family to the United States. You can read about Rose Melanie’s passing and also about Karel’s familly Bijbel (Bible) that still exists in this post: A Mulder Connection.
Karel Mulder and Rose Melanie Bataille had the following children: i. Karel Mulder, born 21 February 1837, Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands; died 22 April 1881, Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands. Karel was my 3x great-grandfather. ii. Pieter Philip Mulder was born on 29 August 1838 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.24 iii. Kornelis Mulder was born on 4 September 1840 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.25 He died on 3 June 1887 at the age of 46 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.26 On 3 June 1887 he was a shoemaker in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.26 iv. Melanie Mulder was born on 21 January 1842 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.27 She died on 23 June 1884 at the age of 42 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.28 v. Johannes Mulder was born on 12 November 1843 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.29 He died on 7 January 1849 at the age of 5 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.30 vi. Andries Mulder was born on 23 January 1846 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.31 vii. Jan Mulder was born on 9 December 1848 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.32 On 22 April 1881 he was a shopkeeper in paint and colonial goods in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.5 viii. Johannes Mulder was born on 10 February 1851 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.33 He died on 26 June 1876 at the age of 25 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.34 On 26 June 1876 he was a shoemaker in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.34 ix. Jacobus Mulder was born on 13 May 1856 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.35 He died on 17 June 1874 at the age of 18 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.36 On 17 June 1874 he was a shopkeeper’s assistant in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.36
So I thought to myself: what am I missing? Only Rose Melanie’s birth record and if there are any military records on Karel. I have death records for both and a birth record for Karel. The fact that I also have images of the Bijbel is an added treasure, thanks to distant cousin Elly Mulder.
Then another wonderful treasure landed in my lap from Elly. She had seen this post when it accidentally published for a few minutes and knew I was in need of Rose Melanie’s birth record. Elly sent me the record.
Elly has had the pleasure of visiting Etaples. Here is her photo of the city hall.
Etaples
The following photo Elly says is an old building found in the same square as the city hall.
Living in Arizona I rarely get to see really old buildings in person. Thank you for these treasures, Elly!
***
SOURCES (this is a partial list–the sources used by Yvette Hoitink in 2013)
5. Goes office, “Memorie van successie [Death duties tax file],” Karel Mulder, died 22 April 1881; call number 106, file number 4/1940; Zeeuws Archief, Middelburg, Netherlands.
20. Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, birth record, 1812, [unnumbered], Karel Mulder, 2 December 1812; digital images, Familysearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 28 July 2013) 21. Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, marriage record, 1836, 16, Mulder-Bataille, 5 May 1836; digital images, Familysearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 28 July 2013) 22. Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, death record, 1870, 1, Karel Mulder, 3 January 1870; digital images, Familysearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 28 July 2013) 23. Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, death record, 1887, 90, Rose Melanie Bataille, 10 July 1887; digital images, Familysearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 28 July 2013) 24. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for birth record of Pieter Philip Mulder, 29 August 1838 Endnotes 16 August
25. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for birth record of Kornelis Mulder, 4 September 1840 26. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for death record of Kornelis Mulder, 3 June 1887 27. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for birth record of Melanie Mulder, 21 January 1842 28. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for death record of Melanie Mulder, 23 June 1884 29. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for birth record of Johannes Mulder, 12 November 1843 30. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for death record of Johannes Mulder, 7 January 1849 31. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for birth record of Andries Mulder, 23 January 1846 32. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for birth record of Jan Mulder, 9 December 1848 33. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 1851), database, entry for birth record of Johannes Mulder, 10 February 1851 34. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for death record of Johannes Mulder, 26 June 1876 35. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for birth record of Jacobus Mulder, 13 May 1856 36. Zeeuws Archief, Zeeuwen Gezocht (http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl : accessed 28 July 2013), database, entry for entry for death record of Jacobus Mulder, 17 June 1874
Although I have not found a baptismal record for Dirk, I suspect he was born in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland. His parents are associated with that town, his wife Aaltje was born and died there, and Dirk was a farmer in Lexmond, so he probably owned a farm.
While I do not have a baptismal record for Aaltje either, the couple’s marriage document (I have the index, but not the record itself) shows that the marriage took place in Lexmond and states that Aaltje was born in Lexmond on 19 November 1793. Dirk was about four years older than his wife, so he probably was born in or around 1789.
For both Dirk and Aaltje I have death index records, but not the death records themselves. Aaltje passed away on 16 August 1829 at the age of 35. She had given birth to at least seven children. One of the children died at age 5, one at age 20, and two more at age 23 (they were not twins–these deaths were years apart). That left my 3x great-grandmother who died at 41 and her two sisters who died in their early 70s.
At first I thought it was strange that Dirk died in Meerkerk instead of Lexmond, but upon consulting a map I once again discovered how close these towns are: 7 kilometers apart. Here is the index of his death record:
And here is Aaltje’s:
What was Dirk’s life like for the forty years after Aaltje died? It’s hard to believe that a farmer wouldn’t remarry. He would need a partner in running the place. The only other thing I can think of is that one of his children and his/her spouse lived there and helped him manage life on the farm. Of course, after his first born, a son, died at age 20, the other surviving children were all girls.
If I were able to do a heritage tour of the Netherlands, Goes and Zwolle and Lexmond would be the three towns to focus on. Although I thought my Dutch ancestors were mainly from Zeeland when I began this project, I see that they are also from Overijssel province and Zuid-Holland province. However, Lexmond was in Zuid-Holland, but is now in the province of Utrecht.
The Dutch Reformed church building in Lexmond dates from the 13th century. I hope to eventually see how far back I can find family in Lexmond.
Another set of ancestors of Richard DeKorn and my grandfather Adrian Zuidweg are my 4x great-grandparents, Joost Peek and his wife, Annigje van Besten.
As I explained previously, the name Paak used most often by my family in the United States was actually Peek in the Netherlands. It is possible they were going for a more phonetically correct spelling (by American English standards).
These are the life stories from Ancestry:
When Joost Peek was born on October 28, 1787, in Zijderveld, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands, his father, Cornelis, was 41 and his mother, Teuntje, was 34. He married Annigje den Besten on September 28, 1814, in Everdingen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. They had six children in 13 years. He died on November 29, 1832, in Everdingen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands, at the age of 45.
Annigje den Besten was born in 1785 in Everdingen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands, the daughter of Maaike and Jan. She married Joost Peek on September 28, 1814, in her hometown. They had six children in 13 years. She died on April 3, 1865, having lived a long life of 80 years.
One of those six children, Maaike, died in infanthood.
I have been blessed with most of the pertinent records on these two. I do still need a baptism record for Annigje and military record for Joost, but I have Joost’s baptismal record, as well as their marriage record and death records for both.
This is the front cover of the book that contains their marriage record.
And this is the marriage record:
Instead of posting Joost’s death record, I will post the transcription and translation that was done through a Facebook group by Carla Ratcliff. Where it says “I” it is Carla. We learn from this record that Joost was a builder by trade.
Transcription in Dutch : #19
In het jaar achttien honderd twee en dertig, den dertigsten der maand November, des voor middags ten tien ure, zijn voor ons Jan Hendrick Kny (ij)tt Burgemeister Ambtenaar van den Burgerlijken Stand der Gemeente van Overdengen gecompareered: Antonie van Ooijen oud vijfen en derig Jaren, van beroep Bouwman wonende te Everdingen en Andries van Meeuwen oud vie ren dertig Jaren van beroep Bouwman, wonende te Everdingen die ons verklaard hebben, dat op den negen en twintigste der maand November des jaars achttien honderd twee en dertig, des morgens ten drie ure, binnen deze Gemeente is overladen: J (I) oost Peek oud vijfen veertig Jaren Bouwman wonende te Everdingen den ag ten twintigste October zeventien honderd vijf en tagtig geboren te zij (y)derveld?, echtgenoot van Annnigje den Besten zonder beroep aldaar woonachtig zoon van Cornelis Peek en van Taientje van Zenderen beide overleden. En hebben wij declaranten een geburen met ins deze acte na gedane voorlezin onderteekend.
[DeepL translations are done by a DeepL machine]
deepl translation : #19 ( I made corrections to deep l translations!!)
In the year eighteen hundred and thirty-two, the thirtieth of November, at ten o’clock in the afternoon, Jan Hendrick Kny (ij)tt Burgemeister Civil Servant of the civil registration of the city of Overdengen( has been composed for us) gecompareered = APPEARED BEFORE ME: Antonie van Ooijen, (aged five and thirteen years) 35 years old, by profession ( Bouwman) BUILDER, living in Everdingen, and Andries van Meeuwen, aged thirty one years, by profession (Bouwman) BUILDER, living in Everdingen, who have declared to us that on the (ninth and twentieth) 29th day of November of the year eighteen hundred thirty-two, in the morning at three o’clock, (there were overloaded)ALSO IN THIS IN CITY: Joost Peek, aged forty-five years (Bouwman) BUILDER , residing in Everdingen, on the twentieth of October seventeen hundred and thirty-five, born in his (y)derveld?, husband of Annnigje den Besten, son of Cornelis Peek and of Tientje van Zenderen, both residing there without profession, both (showered) DEAD. And we have signed a letter to the declarants with in this act after the preceding sentence.
From this death record, we can see that even the witnesses to Joost’s death were all builders.
Annigje outlived Joost for over thirty years. She also died “elsewhere,” in Vianen. This death town caused me all kinds of frustration until I bothered to look up Everdingen where she was born, married, and lived. I discovered this in Wikipedia: “Everdingen is a former municipality in the Netherlands. Together with Zijderveld and Hagestein, it had been part of Vianen municipality since 1986.” So all these little towns were very close. When Annigje was in her 60s she lived in Hagestein. Joost was from Zijderveld.
This city gate of Vianen is from the 15th century.
Like the great-greats in my last post, Jan and Geertruijd (Engelse) de Korne, Dirk Gillesz Remijnse and his wife, Adriana Krijger (Kriger), are ancestors of Richard DeKorn, the man who had a great influence on my grandfather. Richard was Grandpa’s grandfather, and he lived with his parents at the home of Richard. Richard’s given name was Dirk, so he was named after his grandfather, Dirk Gillesz Remijnse.
By the way, according to Family Search:
In Dutch the word for son is zoon; in Old Dutch, it is soen, zoen or soon, which can be abbreviated to sz, z, se, sen and x. Daughter in Dutch is dochter and in Old Dutch it is doghter which can be abbreviated to d, dr, s, se, sen, sens, and x.
Using this info, we can see that Dirk Gillesz means that his father’s name was Gillis or Gilles.
According to Dirk’s and Adriana’s life stories on Ancestry:
When Dirk Gillesz Remijnse was born on November 22, 1786, in Kruiningen, Zeeland, Netherlands, his father, Gillis, was 29 and his mother, Hendrika, was 23. He married Adriana Krijger on August 26, 1810, in Kapelle, Zeeland, Netherlands. They had ten children in 15 years. He died on September 9, 1840, in Kapelle, Zeeland, Netherlands, at the age of 53.
When Adriana Krijger was born on June 11, 1787, in Biggekerke, Zeeland, Netherlands, her father, Jan, was 53, and her mother, Janna, was 31. She married Dirk Gillesz Remijnse on August 26, 1810, in Kapelle, Zeeland, Netherlands. They had ten children in 15 years. She died on April 14, 1845, in Kapelle, Zeeland, Netherlands, at the age of 57.
I would add that of these ten children, nine lived to adulthood, whereas Pieter died at age 8. It is possible that there were other babies who passed away, but I have not yet searched for them. For the most part, these children are 1-2 years apart, though, so it’s likely that the family was blessed with good odds (for those days) and that the majority of their children survived.
I found a death record for both husband and wife.
Dirk’s record:
Index of Dirk’s death record:
Adriana’s death record:
Index of Adriana’s death record:
I have not found a marriage record for this couple, nor a baptismal record for Dirk. But I did finally find a baptismal record for Adriana and ordered it from Zeeuws Archief. It arrived in time for this post!
At the birth of their daughter, Johanna, my 3x great-grandmother (who died in Kalamazoo in 1864), Dirk’s occupation was listed as bread baker. Probably a good thing, since he had all those mouths to feed! But think of him getting up really early and getting the ovens going. A pretty hard job, although a good smelling one.
I must confess that the birth date for Dirk and the marriage date that I show come from online family trees on “genealogy online,” a Dutch site. I do not have documents verifying them. So let’s just use them as place holders for now. Of course, the birth years are fairly accurate because of the ages listed on the death records, but I still need those documents!
Adriana was born in Biggekerke. This is a “ground sailor,” which is a term for a windmill that can be operated from the ground. Brassers Molen is a flour mill that was built in 1712, so it had already been around for quite some time when Adriana was born in 1787.
Brassers Molen from Wikipedia
Dirk hailed from Kruinengen, and that town also has an old flour windmill, Oude Molen (literally, Old Mill). This one was built in 1801 when Dirk was 25 years old.
Oude Molen from Wikipedia
If you would like to understand the role of some windmills in controlling the water in below-sea-level Netherlands, read Eilene’s wonderful post: Milling Water to the Sea
My 3x great-grandfather, Boudewijn DeKorn and his wife, Johanna Remine, were the first generation in the DeKorn branch to immigrate to the United States. Boudewijn’s parents, Jan and Geertruijd (Engelse) de Korne (de Corne) were the last generation of my direct ancestors to remain in the Netherlands. By the time that the younger couple had emigrated in 1856, Boudewijn’s parents were already deceased.
Jan had passed away nine years before, on 10 November 1847 in Kapelle, Zeeland, Netherlands, at age 54. Although I knew that my 2x great-grandfather Richard DeKorn was born in Kapelle, I think this is pretty much the same area as Goes, where so much of the family came from. In fact, the cities are only 7 kilometers apart (less than 4.5 miles!).
Jan was born on or around 16 November 1792 in Kattendijke, but this is a village in Goes. This shows that this portion of the family was in Goes before the move to Kapelle. Kloetinge is another village in the city of Goes that I have seen mentioned in my relatives’ records.
This is a copy of Jan’s baptismal record.
Dutch Reformed Church (Kapelle, Zeeland, Netherlands), baptisms 1777-1810, Jan de Cornee, 16 November 1792
Dutch Reformed Church (Kattendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands), baptisms 1755-1810, Jan de Corne, 16 November 1792.
Geertruijd had already been gone for some time when her husband passed. She died at age 40 on 23 May 1829 in Kapelle, just a few weeks after the birth of her son Pieter. She was born in Kruinengen, about 17 kilometers from Goes, so not far from Kapelle either, on or around 22 April 1789.
The couple was married on 22 April 1814 in Kapelle. According to Yvette Hoitink: “The marriage record of Jan de Korne and Geertruijd Engelse was found in the ZeeuwenGezocht.nl index of civil registration records. They were married in Kapelle on 22 April 1814. Scans of the 1814 marriage records of Kapelle are missing from the “Netherlands, Civil Registration, 1792-1952″ set of images at Familysearch.org so the original text has not been consulted. The (reliable) index provides the names of his parents: Boudewijn de Korne and Jacoba Loenhout and gives his age (21) and place of birth (Kattendijke).” Therefore, I do not have a copy of their marriage record.
At the time of their marriage, I believe that Jan was already living in Kapelle and working as a farmer. Whether his father or he owned a farm, I do not know. But he is listed as a farmer, not a laborer or day laborer, so it is likely that there was a family farm. I don’t know what brought Geertruijd to Kapelle.
After fifteen years of marriage and two living children (my 3x great Boudewijn and his brother Pieter–there were at least two infants who died, as well), Jan was left a widower. On 19 October 1832, he married Elizabeth Zandijk. After she passed away on or around 16 April 1833 (six months after their marriage!!!!), Jan married another Elizabeth. This third wife was Elizabeth Bustraan, and their marriage began on 16 April 1841 in Kapelle. I do not have a date for her death.
I do have copies of the marriage records for Jan’s second and third marriages.
I have a death record for both Jan and Geertruijd. Here is Jan’s.
And here is Geertuijd’s:
I hope to eventually find the couple’s marriage record. Additionally, I am looking for Geertruijd’s baptismal record and any evidence of a military record for Jan.
Cover photo shows flooding at the Water Works Bridge in Kalamazoo, March 26, 1904. That spring, the water got 6″ higher than the photo shows.
ORDER ERIC HOFFER AWARD FINALIST KIN TYPES: FAMILY HISTORY MEETS LITERATURE
KALAMAZOO AND SW MICHIGAN:
This blog shares the photographs and stories of my mother's family--the DeKorn, Zuidweg, and Mulder families which settled in southwestern Michigan.
It also occasionally shares the photographs and stories of my father's family from Chicago and Elmhurst, Illinois.
Many of the posts are centered around the locations of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.
*The PAGES listed BELOW tell about this blog and summarize the main family branches appearing on this blog.
*The TABS at the TOP of the page are a quick way to find posts related to particular family branches.
The Family Kalamazoo 